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P. J. Rhodes

*Aristotle is credited with works on the constitutions of 158 states: a papyrus containing all but the opening few pages of the Athenian constitution was acquired by the British Museum, and was ...
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*Aristotle is credited with works on the constitutions of 158 states: a papyrus containing all but the opening few pages of the Athenian constitution was acquired by the British Museum, and was published in 1891. About the first two thirds (chs. 1–41) give a history of the constitution to the restoration of the democracy after the regime of the Thirty (see thirty tyrants). This part derives from a mixture of sources, and is of uneven merit, but at its best it contains valuable information which does not survive in any other text. The remaining third (42–69) gives an extremely useful account of the working of the constitution in the author's time, and appears to be based on the laws of Athens and the author's own observation.There has been much argument as to the authorship of the work: it was regularly attributed in antiquity to Aristotle, and was written (in the 330s bce, with some revision in the 320s) when he was in Athens; there are some striking agreements between the Athēnaiōn politeia and Aristotle's Politics (e.Less

Timothy Thomas Bennett Ryder

Common Peace (κοινὴ εἰρήνη), the phrase used by *Diodorus (3) Siculus, following *Ephorus, and by some contemporaries (though not by *Demosthenes (2), *Isocrates, or *Xenophon (1)) to ...
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Common Peace (κοινὴ εἰρήνη), the phrase used by *Diodorus (3) Siculus, following *Ephorus, and by some contemporaries (though not by *Demosthenes (2), *Isocrates, or *Xenophon (1)) to describe a series of peace-treaties in Greece in the 4th cent. bce, applicable to all cities on the basis of *autonomy. Such treaties were concluded in 387/6 (the *King's Peace), 375, 371 twice, 365 (possibly), 362/1, and 338/7 (see corinth, league of), and proposed on other occasions; their principles strongly influenced the foreign policies of leading cities between 387 and 338 and were used as the basis of their relations with Greece by *Philip (1) II, *Alexander (3) the Great, and *Antigonus (1) I the One-eyed.

M. H. Hansen

Athenian democracy from 508/7 to 322/1 bce is the best known example in history of a ‘direct’ democracy as opposed to a ‘representative’ or ‘parliamentary’ form of democracy.Today democracy is ...
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Athenian democracy from 508/7 to 322/1 bce is the best known example in history of a ‘direct’ democracy as opposed to a ‘representative’ or ‘parliamentary’ form of democracy.Today democracy is invariably a positive concept, almost a buzz-word, whereas dēmokratia in ancient Greece was a hotly debated form of constitution, often criticized by oligarchs and philosophers alike. The Athenian democrats themselves, however, connected dēmokratia with the rule of law (Aeschin. 1. 4–5) and, like modern democrats, they believed that democracy was inseparably bound up with the ideals of liberty and equality (Thuc. 2. 37). Democracy was even deified, and in the 4th cent. bce offerings were made to the goddess Demokratia (Inscriptiones Graecae 22. 1496. 131–41).Dēmokratia was what the word means: the rule (kratos) of the people (*dēmos), and decisions of the assembly were introduced with the formula .Less

Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth

Democracy or people's power (see demos) was not an Athenian monopoly or even invention. (See democracy, Athenian.) The Archaic Spartan constitutional document (rhētra) preserved in Plutarch Lycurgus ...
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Democracy or people's power (see demos) was not an Athenian monopoly or even invention. (See democracy, Athenian.) The Archaic Spartan constitutional document (rhētra) preserved in Plutarch Lycurgus 6 explicitly says that ‘the people shall have the power’, but Sparta soon ossified. Sixth-cent. bce*Chios, as an inscription (ML 8) reveals, had a constitution with some popular features, though Classical Chios, like Classical Sparta, was no longer democratic: Thuc. 8. 24 (late 5th cent.) brackets Sparta and Chios and implies that both were oligarchies; for Chios see also Syll.3 986. Classical Greek states other than Athens, such as *Argos (1), were or were perceived as democracies (Thuc. 5. 31. 6 and other evidence) but Athenian influence can usually be postulated (see democracy, Athenian). Thus assembly pay, a feature of the developed Athenian democracy (it was introduced only after the main *Peloponnesian War) is also attested at Hellenistic *Iasus and *Rhodes, no doubt exported there originally from Athens.Less

George Law Cawkwell

The greatest Athenian orator. When Demosthenes was 7 years old his father died, leaving the management of his estate to his brothers, Aphobus and Demophon, and a friend, Therippides. The trustees ...
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The greatest Athenian orator. When Demosthenes was 7 years old his father died, leaving the management of his estate to his brothers, Aphobus and Demophon, and a friend, Therippides. The trustees mismanaged the business, and Demosthenes at the age of 18 found himself almost without resources. He claimed his patrimony from his guardians, who spent three years in attempts to compromise. In the mean-time, he was studying rhetoric and legal procedure under *Isaeus (1) and at 21 he brought a successful action against his guardians, but two more years elapsed before he received the remnants of the property. By now he was engaged in the profession of logographos (speech-writer) and the reputation gained in private cases led to his being employed as an assistant to prosecutors in public trials.From 355/4 onwards he came more and more to devote himself to public business. It is not clear how far Demosthenes' sympathies were engaged in his first public trials, the prosecutions of *Androtion and Leptines in 355 and of Androtion's associate, Timocrates, in 353: Against Androtion and Against Timocrates he wrote for a Diodorus, and in any case the political tendency of the trials is unsure; Against Leptines Demosthenes did deliver himself, and, since Leptines' law was defended by *Aristophon, it is possible that all three trials centred on his policy and that Demosthenes was one of his opponents.Less

P. J. Rhodes

The term δοκιμασία and the related verb dokimazein were used in various Greek contexts to denote a procedure of examining or testing, and approving or validating as a result of the test.1 For Athens, ...
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The term δοκιμασία and the related verb dokimazein were used in various Greek contexts to denote a procedure of examining or testing, and approving or validating as a result of the test.1 For Athens, Ath. Pol. mentions four categories of dokimasiai: two political, of eighteen-year-old men registered as citizens, which were conducted by deme assemblies and the council (42.1–2); and of men appointed as councillors and officials, which was conducted by the council in some cases and by law courts in others (45.3, 55.2–4, 56.1, 59.4, 60.1); and two more technical, of the cavalry’s horses and the prodromoi and hamippoi who fought with the cavalry, and in effect of the cavalrymen themselves (though in connection with them the word is not used), which were conducted by the council (49.1–2); and of invalids, who were entitled to a grant if impoverished and unable to work, which also was conducted by the council (49.4). As with the cavalrymen, there were other procedures which may be considered dokimasiai, though the word is not applied to them, such as decisions about designs for the peplos, the robe made every fourth year for the cult statue of Athena, and perhaps about plans for public works in general, carried out originally by the council but in the time of Ath.Less

D. M. MacDowell

Draco, according to Athenian tradition, was a lawgiver who introduced new laws in the year when Aristaechmus was archon (see archontes), probably 621/0 bce. This was the first time that Athenian laws ...
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Draco, according to Athenian tradition, was a lawgiver who introduced new laws in the year when Aristaechmus was archon (see archontes), probably 621/0 bce. This was the first time that Athenian laws were put in writing. According to one account (Ath. pol. 4) he established a constitution based on the franchise of *hoplites, but elsewhere he is only said to have made laws against particular crimes. The penalties were very severe: when asked why he specified death as the penalty for most offences, he replied that small offences deserved death and he knew of no severer penalty for great ones; and the 4th-cent. orator *Demades remarked that Draco wrote his laws in blood instead of ink (Plut. Sol. 17). *Solon repealed all his laws except those dealing with homicide.Such was the tradition current in Athens in the 5th and 4th cents. bce.Less

S. D. Lambert

Lycurgus was one of the ten canonical Attic orators and an influential politician who worked energetically for the regeneration of Athens after the battle of Chaeronea (338) until his death, a period ...
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Lycurgus was one of the ten canonical Attic orators and an influential politician who worked energetically for the regeneration of Athens after the battle of Chaeronea (338) until his death, a period commonly referred to as “Lycurgan Athens.” The principal evidence about him is the “Life” in the Lives of the Ten Orators attributed to Plutarch (841a–844a) and the appended decree of 307/306 bce honouring him posthumously (851f–852e), the inscribed version of which is partially preserved (IG II2 457 + 3207). His one extant speech, “Against Leocrates,” of 331, was directed against a man accused of abandoning Attica in the aftermath of the battle of Chaeronea, and is notable for its moralising tone and extensive use of examples from myth and history, including quotations from poetry. Lycurgus is also prominent in the epigraphical record. He proposed more extant inscribed laws and decrees than any other politician of the classical Athenian democracy, except for his chief rival, Demades.Less

H. Maehler

Papyrus, manufactured in Egypt since c.3000 bce from a marsh plant, Cyperus papyrus (see books, greek and roman), was the most widely used writing material in the Graeco-Roman world. The object of ...
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Papyrus, manufactured in Egypt since c.3000 bce from a marsh plant, Cyperus papyrus (see books, greek and roman), was the most widely used writing material in the Graeco-Roman world. The object of papyrology is to study texts written on papyrus (and on ostraca, wooden tablets, etc. in so far as they come from the same find-spots) in Egyptian (hieroglyphs, demotic, Coptic), Hebrew, *Aramaic, Greek, Latin, Pahlavi, and Arabic. Greek papyrology also deals with Greek texts written on parchment (see palaeography, Introduction). The vast majority of Greek papyri have been found in Egypt, preserved in the dry sand; with the exception of some carbonized papyri from *Bubastis and Thmouis, no papyri have survived in the damp soils of the Delta or *Alexandria (1). Outside Egypt, Greek papyri have been found at *Herculaneum, at Dura-*Europus, in Palestine, and one text has come from Greece: the carbonized Orphic commentary found in a burial at Derveni near Salonica; see orphic literature; orphism.Less

Oswyn Murray

Polis (pl. poleis), the Greek city-state. The polis is the characteristic form of Greek urban life; its main features are small size, political *autonomy, social homogeneity, sense of community and ...
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Polis (pl. poleis), the Greek city-state. The polis is the characteristic form of Greek urban life; its main features are small size, political *autonomy, social homogeneity, sense of community and respect for law. It can be contrasted with the earlier Mycenaean palace economy (see mycenaean civilization), and with the continuing existence of tribal (ethnos) types of organization in many areas of northern Greece. (See ethnicity. For a different sense of ‘tribe’ see below.) The polis arose in the late Dark Ages. It is present in *Homer; the archaeological signs of city development (public space, temples, walls, public works, town planning) appear in an increasing number of sites in the 8th–7th cents. (Old *Smyrna, *Eretria); the peaceful abandonment of smaller sites and the general decline of archaeological evidence from the countryside in the 7th cent. suggest early *synoecism or concentration of population in specific polis sites.Less